1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data system for data collection and processing in multi network communications.
2. Related Art
Where communication instances, for instance telephone calls or data transfers, occur within a single network, it is known to log and process data related to those communication instances. Commonly, in a public switched telephone network (PSTN), data will be collected concerning call duration, and processed with respect to at least time of day and call type, so that the network operator can generate an item on a bill destined for the subscriber who initiated a call.
Over recent years, the data systems for PSTNs have necessarily become increasingly complex as the choice of service and call type available to subscribers has greatly increased. For instances, with the introduction of 0800 numbers, it is no longer the initiating subscriber who will be billed. Many more complicated services are already being trialled, or available, on PSTNs, such as call forwarding where a call initiated by a first subscriber to a selected number is forwarded automatically by the network to a different number, the different in cost being borne by the receiving subscriber.
Another aspect of communication networks which is in the course of considerable change is the multiplicity of network operators in existence. In the past, PSTNs have been run primarily by government organizations as part of the national infra structure. Nowadays and increasingly, privatization of the PSTNs and the relaxation of regulatory monopolies means that there are many more network operators available to the subscriber and these network operators must, for practical reasons, provide inter network connection. This means that a network operator must take into account not only communication instances arising in their own network or in a limited number of inter-connected networks of independent but similar administrations, but also communication instances arising in a theoretically very large number of competing networks of different types and providing a wide variety of services to subscribers.
It is, therefore, of increasing importance that data be collected and processed in connection with communication instances arising outside an operator""s network but terminating in or simply crossing the operator""network.
When calls pass through the network of more than one operator, price and charging agreements between operators for the carriage of each other""s calls come into play. Such arrangements can vary from the simple Sender Keeps All (SKA) arrangement to complex pricing formulae.
It has been an established practice between separate network operators or administrations, in telecommunications, that call data would be collected by the administration responsible for the network in which a call arises. If that call then terminates in a second network, the administration concerned with the second network relies on the data collected by the administration responsible for the first network, for instance for accounting purposes, However, the telecommunications environment is changing quickly, politically as well as technically. With the advent of greater competition, it is increasingly attractive to network administrations to monitor not only traffic arising in their own network but also traffic arising elsewhere but crossing or terminating in their own network. If the network in which traffic arises belongs to a competing operator or administration, it is desirable that it is at least possible to cross check the competing operator""s accounts.
In known arrangements, data collection points concerning calls in a PSTN have been at local exchanges of a network since the local exchange picks up traffic as it arises. This arrangement, however, does not provide for data collection with respect to inter-network traffic. Even were there to be data collection points to collect data on calls incoming to a network, the logistics involved in processing such data to any level of detail are daunting. For instance, it has been estimated that calls incoming to the PSTN operated in Britain by British Telecommunications pic (BT) from other network administrations including the Isle of Man and the Cellnet cellular network totalled 15.4 million calls per day in the twelve months prior to March 1992. This figure is expected to increase to the order of 27 million calls a day in the year prior to March 1995. Taking all call instances into account, including those arising within the BT PSTN, 60 million call instances per day have been predicted for 1995.
In spike of the very large quantity of data involved, it has been found possible in making the present invention to design a process for collecting and processing data relating to calls incoming to a major telecommunications network, the British PSTN, which can produce an output in sufficient detail to allow the associated network administration to generate account information which not only can be allocated to outside network administrations appropriately, but also supports itemized billing. That is, the account information can be broken down in sufficient detail even to identify individual calls, so far as they fulfill preselected criteria, in the manner of itemized billing currently available in the national billing system for the British PSTN from British Telecommunications plc.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process for collecting and processing data concerning communication instances in a first communications network, wherein the network includes at least one point of connection, either directly or indirectly, to as second communications network, by means of which point of connection a communication instance arising in said second network can be transmitted into, and either cross or terminate in, said first network, the process comprising the steps of:
i) collecting data at a data access point at said point of connection, said data concerning a communication instance arising in said second network and comprising route information and at least one parameter measurement, or example duration, with respect to said communication instance;
ii) transmitting said data into a data processing system; and
iii) processing said data.
By collecting the data at a point of connection between the first network and another network, it becomes available to the administration associated with the first network to obtain first hand information about communication instances incoming to the first network, and thus potentially to cross check data provided by other network operators or administrators.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing arrangement, for processing data collected in a PSTN at a point of connection with another network, the arrangement comprising:
i) a data input for inputting data concerning communication instances from a communication network, said data comprising at least one of a plurality of sort characteristics;
ii) verifying means for checking the integrity and sufficiency of data received at the data input;
iii) a data analyzer for analyzing data rejected by the verifying means, and for submitting amended or default data to the verifying means;
iv) pricing means for pricing verified data which has been output by the verifying means, in accordance with updatable reference information; and
v) output means for outputting priced, verified data from the pricing means into memory locations, each memory location being dedicated to data relevant to one or more of said sort characteristics.
Preferably, the pricing means can also validate data, and output errored data to a data analyzer, which may be the above data analyzer or a different one, so that data which has been corrupted can potentially be reformatted, or otherwise corrected, and, therefore, re-entered to the system as a valid record of a communication instance.
It may also (or alternatively) be that this further data analysis step is used to analyze the data with respect to a different type of fault. For instance, data analysis carried out on errored data which has been located by the verifying means might be errored principally in respect of format and routing information while the errored data from the pricing means might be errored principally in respect of pricing information.
The sort characteristics will typically be such that the memory locations can hold data relevant to communication instances which will be billable to a common accounting entity, for instance, arising in a common respective communications network.
The sort characteristics might be applied at any one of several stages of the data processing arrangement described above. However, in a PSTN for example, the nature of errored data usually arising makes it preferable to provide sorting means between (iii), the data analyzer associated with the verifying means, and (iv), the pricing means. The pricing means therefore acts on data already sorted. If the sort characteristics relate to the different entities who will be billed in respect of the communication instances represented by the data, then this arrangement can also have the advantage that the pricing means can potentially be simplified in applying constraints relevant to individual entities.
It might be noted that a network such as the BT PSTN comprises both local and trunk exchanges and provides not only inter-exchange call transmission but also local call delivery to the end user. This means that the data collection and processing necessary to support billing or bill verification has to be sufficiently complex to deal with an extremely wide range of variables. This is in contrast to the situation where a network provides only inter-trunk exchange transmission, or only the local call delivery.